my advice.....have fun with it. if you are dreading it you will sound bad. just let it out man be yourself don't be a pu55y and hold back. have fun with it and it will go much easier. that's how it is with me and my voice teacher, i just started with him and i barely know him and when he's like 'sing' it's really awkward. so i just be bold and have fun with it.

[QUOTE=boilingsociety]Hi

I'm new...just looking...But I have a few questions that I will hopefully find answers to??? :confused:

I'm just your regular run of the mill coffee house singer, but I've been looking to improve my voice..I can sing on key (most of the time..lol), and it sounds alright--but there's always room for improvement.

I'm just wondering if there's anything I can do to
(1) get a clearer sound--Right now I think it's a bit "airy" (if that's understandable, I'm not sure how to explain better...)
(2) develop a unique style that's more MINE then everyone elses..lol

So, if anyone understands my rambling and has any advice, feel free to inform me :)

Thanks all[/QUOTE]

If youre airy and youre not trying to push hard, you may be using the wrong voice for the range youre trying to sing. or youre not using proper breathing. could be a few things.
your style will come from you in time. noone can help you with originality. if they did, it wouldnt be original now would it. singing acapella really helps you find your own unique qualities, and you can emphasize them.

theres plenty in the voice help hotline sticky, and the singing 101 sticky to pretty much write a book on. so its here if youre not lazy. and if youre lazy, then youre not serious anyways

[QUOTE=Merkaba-1]and if youre lazy, then youre not serious anyways[/QUOTE]
nicely said.

question about voice changes.
i am nearly 17. i am 6"4, 202 pounds. i have been the same height for about 9 months, and i think i am done growing. i am rather large for my age. people always mistake me for 18, 19, even 20 sometimes. (which does come in handy)
to the point, when you stop growing does your voice stop chaning? or not neccesarily? my teacher says i am a baritone now, but he says that could change. is this true? or am i pretty much done? or will only time tell?

[QUOTE=j0s1ah]question about voice changes.
i am nearly 17. i am 6"4, 202 pounds. i have been the same height for about 9 months, and i think i am done growing. i am rather large for my age. people always mistake me for 18, 19, even 20 sometimes. (which does come in handy)
to the point, when you stop growing does your voice stop chaning? or not neccesarily? my teacher says i am a baritone now, but he says that could change. is this true? or am i pretty much done? or will only time tell?[/QUOTE]
Definitely. Peoples' voices keep changing almost their whole lives, depending on hormones, habits and other things. I wouldn't expect big changes, but your voice will change noticeably even in your 20's.

thanks ;)

Totally unrelated to everything else, and perhaps it has already been said, swimming increases your "tank" or lung capacity in a hurry. So if you aren’t satisfied with how much you can hold go swimming for about 30 mins everyday for a month. The change is dramatic, doubling your "tank" is pretty common if you're actually doing laps instead of just messing around. Besides that you'll get buff ;)

i swam competitively when i was a freshman. yeah it helps. now i weighlift and run.

Running is good for your tank to, and weight lifting can help you get the sudden vocal explosion you want if you're breathing correctly while you lift. All sports are good for singers... except maybe golf.

any tips on really low screaming? like mortician or cannibal corpse?
id really appreaciate it
thanks

[url]http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219911[/url]

Alright I have saved the lessons onto my pc and I'm just wondering, is it possible to get good without having lessons? I've read over them and am going to try them as soon as possible but I can't afford proper lessons... :confused: please answer...I have lots of songs but I can't sing and I think once I can I'll be sorted

lessons help, but u can get good without them! the magic word:
practice.

Orite thanks :)
Do you think it would be worth buying a book off Amazon...they seem to have a selection...any recommendations?

i was looking into it. you might as well try them, they are usually like $10-$20. pretty cheap.
[url]http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0316441791/ref=lpr_g_1/002-2838565-1889601?v=glance&s=books[/url]
[url]http://www.getsigned.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=SNGSTRBK[/url]
[url]http://www.vocalrelease.com/[/url]
[url]http://www.getsigned.com/page/GMM/PROD/ROCKSINGBK[/url]

all you need is alot of practice, preferably where you cant be judged while youre doing things that arent always "good singing"

I just wanted to say that this is a really great forum topic, hopefully some people will really benefit from this (like me :D )

[QUOTE=joas]I just wanted to say that this is a really great forum topic, hopefully some people will really benefit from this (like me :D )[/QUOTE]
many have. and many will.

i just had another lesson today. and my teacher said my singing range was 1 octave and 7 notes. (1 note short of 2 octaves)
i was stoked, i didn't think it was that big.
lessons are cool, i can tell i am better.
i was j/w what are some of your ranges?

btw, i am not sure what note i start/finish on, but i'll find out later.

how 'bout i bump this sticky. or i could make a new thread....nah.

2 octaves and a bit. I can hit a G# once in a blue moon, my practical cut off is around F. I can sing down to an Eb.

I just checked mine, I can get down about D2 and up around G4/G# if I'm lucky. So a little more than 2 octaves. :thumb:

Problem...
 

I really love to play Lead guitar, But I really want to get into singing, Im 15, And Im attempting to sing like Thrash metal, I think my voice is sorta Snake(voivod)/Maynard esque, but im only 15, Probably not gonna be that way forever. Id just like some pointers on making myself sound better live and whatnot. Ive been playing guitar for a while, and from what ive been told I am good... If that helps any? Thank you in advance.

check out merkaba's help hotline.
actually, i think he compiled the merkaba bible, it should be out soon.

I'd like to know how Chris Cornell hit the high notes he did in the Utramega OK album. I've read that he used a "mixed falsetto", but I don't know what that is. Is there anyone out there who can help?

Wow... If you can sing anywhere REMOTLEY like Chris Cornell, You are a god, Chris Cornell is like the best singer on the planet in my opinion, Id like to know if the song everlong is all Falsetto, Im really new to this singing stuff :confused:

I have most of Chris down pat(especially in audioslave), along with maynard, chino and Chad from mudvayne. Chris just sings with alot more range than the others. Chris seems to be just one of those naturals, but for us laymen, its really a matter of technique. once you learn to isolate, and learn proper breath support, you can pretty much do what you like. but you do have ultimate limitations especially with tone and range, just by the size of your throat and cords and whatnot. However it takes a long time to find out what that limit is. like years.

Im gonna eventually get around to posting some songs. i have a few samples and instruction up in the hotline. i can do Sweet Euphoria and Preaching the End of the World by Chris, on acoustic. Im just not a really good guitar player. I'm planning on doing maybe an acapella array, some black days and Limo wreck, maybe something else.

I havent really heard much from that OK album. i just had to rebuy Badmotorfinger (is it better than Badmotorfinger??)last weak cause i lost my last one. i love Superunknown, and listen to like suicide 'bout everyday. He does use alot of mixed voice for higher stuff, especially scream type stuff. you just cant blow alot of air behind a high head voice note to get decent rasp without the cords opening up anyways so you might as well do it properly to minimize fatigue. However he does use alot of pure head voice and not as much pure falsetto as i believe people think.

Check out the Voice help hotline.

[QUOTE=CrazyConductor]Wow... If you can sing anywhere REMOTLEY like Chris Cornell, You are a god, Chris Cornell is like the best singer on the planet in my opinion, Id like to know if the song everlong is all Falsetto, Im really new to this singing stuff :confused:[/QUOTE]

**** i love that song. Reminded me of it. now i gotta get it. Does anyone have it on mp3???

yea, from memory it does sound like a low falsetto technique for the verses, i think the chorus is more of a mix.

Singing On Key
 

I started out last year singing and playing guitar (just barre chords). Anyway, the first time I recorded myself was on a cheap Radio Shack Cassette recorder with built-in mike. When I hit the playback button you could have hit me with a twoXbyXfour! Was this me????? I restrained myself from throwing the guitar out the window and quitting.....

Using a digital recorder and tube/condenser mike helped out, but I was severely out of tune. I could tell it was bad when I listened to the recording , but couldn't really tell as I was singing.

After much searching and reading, I finally bumped into Carry-A-Tune software. It gives you run time feedback as you practice scales, and has three levels of challange each allowing you to be off key less and less. The program also scores your results.The changes in my singing were almost overnight. After 3 months I can sing higher (I'm a baritone), stronger with less strain. I'm also using the program to enter in lessons from Seth Riggs book, then I can see how I'm progressing as the program tells me when I'm off key. At first I was scoring less then 50 as a beginner. Now, I'm scoring 100 almost always as a beginner, and above 90 always as an intermediate. The Expert level I'm mostly around a 75.

Beginner allows a full step away, intermediate half as much, and expert 1/8 as much.

The program has a step-by-step singing tutorial thats fun and effective. Even has animated characters as your teacher (the talking mike)

My singing is on key most of the time now....we'll see a year from now.

The new version out shortly will allow you to import Midi. I create my own music with a program called "Play Music" entry level notation software. And this program is an excellant way to learn about music. You save your score as a midi file, then import it into CAT and you can monitor how well you stay in tune with your own tune.

sounds very cool and interesting. i would be even more interesting if you stick around, since this is your first post. that way we might know that youre not just secretely advertising. hehe. if you are, its a **** good job though! heh

lol. yeah maybe i will check that out....is it free?
also, what bands has chris been in besides audioslave and soundgarden?

[QUOTE=Merkaba-1]I have most of Chris down pat(especially in audioslave),
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I can nail that stuff, even with my lack of experience and knowledge; I think he's pretty much blown out his voice by now. Listen to "Louder Than Love", "Ultramega OK" or the EP "Screaming Life" for some serious stuff...if you can handle some of those songs without breaking a sweat I'll be well impressed.

[QUOTE=Merkaba-1]I havent really heard much from that OK album.[/QUOTE]
Well I don't know what album the song "Beyond The Wheel" is on, I think it's Ultramega OK, but try and get hold of that song, that'll give you an idea of what I'm talking about. (I think his voice actually lost some of it's range by the time he did Badmotorfinger, so you can imagine how good the vocals are on that album!)

[QUOTE=Merkaba-1]i just had to rebuy Badmotorfinger (is it better than Badmotorfinger??) last weak cause i lost my last one.[/QUOTE]

I'd say songwriting-wise it's not as good, but the instrumental performances are probably slightly worse, but the vocals are better.

[QUOTE=Merkaba-1]i love Superunknown, and listen to like suicide 'bout everyday. He does use alot of mixed voice for higher stuff, especially scream type stuff. you just cant blow alot of air behind a high head voice note to get decent rasp without the cords opening up anyways so you might as well do it properly to minimize fatigue. However he does use alot of pure head voice and not as much pure falsetto as i believe people think.
[/QUOTE]

I think he uses mixed voice a lot, he's just clever about it. I've heard the early demos on the Sub Pop compilation called "Deep Six", back when Soundgarden were just starting out...his voice was, putting it bluntly, nothing special back then. If you hear the same song done on the "Screaming Life" EP, it sounds about a hundred times better. I don't know what he did to improve his technique so much between that recording and the next, but I'd sure like to!

[QUOTE=Merkaba-1]Check out the Voice help hotline.[/QUOTE]

Will do....

[QUOTE=Merkaba-1]sounds very cool and interesting. i would be even more interesting if you stick around, since this is your first post. that way we might know that youre not just secretely advertising. hehe. if you are, its a **** good job though! heh[/QUOTE]

I really like the program, and there are things about it I don't like as well, but they are minor. The bottom line is the program really helped me out...
I paid $80 for it off their web site. The notation program was $50
Hmmmm, maybe I should charge THEM for plugging it!

Thanks session 9.
and hey, rems came back! :lol:

yea, maybe you should get a little cut!

Chris Cornell sang most lead in Temple Of The Dog, Except the song Hunger Strike (Eddie Vedder)

He sang Backup on that song though, You can hear him, clear as day

[QUOTE=CrazyConductor]Chris Cornell sang most lead in Temple Of The Dog, Except the song Hunger Strike (Eddie Vedder)[/QUOTE]
gotcha, ty.

God , the man is just a genius on guitar though. i dont understand how someone can just move through the progression he does sometimes. I mean, i know there are alot of comparable players out there, but i dont know them because im not really a guitar playing officianado. Im partial to his work because it has so many elements and styles in any given song.

Sweet Euphoria just sounds like the sun is rising to me and youre just waking up. not because he hints to it in his lyrics, but the music is like a soundtrack to the feeling he's talking about.

...sigh..

you inspired me to download that song. i have never heard it before.

is it buy audioslave or chris cornell? or what?